As you know you will not find any current stock that is totally resistant.
Weslco indicates 3% - 10% of our current bees have some level of
resistance. Say it is 3%, that is on average 3 colonies out of 100. It will take
a good number of bees, say 100 and you may only get on average 3 hive
surviving, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on the initial 100
colonies. So, it will take several years to get enough tolerant bees to do any
significant grafting. You may also note that when the first 3% or so are
grafted, the grafted untreated survival rate of the second generation is
probably also going to be low but I would suspect it to be something greater
than 3%. This is not a short term project but will take a long term view
to succeed.
The issue is compounded with genetics. I was speaking with Steve Shepard
today and he indicated approx 20 different queen mother lines is really
needed to prevent cross breeding in commercial queen production operations.
Seems to me we should be collectively funding several (20?) queen producers
/ commercial operations to produce resistant queens. Maybe this is
something that the AHP, or ABF should be involved with ? The task needs a
central coordination authority.
Dave M.
Letter To The Editor
Chemical treatments of colonies need to be rethought. Reports from South
America are now indicating the South Americans have the skill to produce
honey from African bees in greater quantity than European bees in the past.
Also, other less developed countries without the money to purchase
chemicals / hive pesticides will let their hives go natural. With the bee genetic
diversity that exist, chances are the bees will not only survive after a
few years but thrive.
Treating with chemicals is costly in pesticide product, labor,
transportation expense, etc. We have already gone thru several generations of
chemicals such as Apistan, and Coumphous. We are finding chemical contamination
in our honey and beeswax including foundation. Minute chemical traces are
suspect in our current hive problems.
The Weslco bee lab has indicated 3%-10% of colonies have some level of
malady resistance. We need to identify those colonies, and reproduce / graft
from them to get off this chemical bandwagon. The commercial operations
are going down a dead-in street.
David E. MacFawn
In a message dated 7/18/2009 1:55:32 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
>
> All great points, Bob!
>
> >The first real genetics to help commercial beekeepers *in my opinion*
came
> with the Australian import.
> Crossed with our Italians they produced hybrid vigor, flew earlier in the
> morning and even will fly in a light rain.
The Aussie bees often put on their main honey crops during winter in cool
weather, since that's when Eucalyptus blooms. I watched Trevor
Weatherhead's bees a couple of weeks ago, in the dead of winter, whitening
comb and ripening honey--in cool weather.
>
>
> >To be honest we loved the bees we had before mites. The arrival of the
> mites
> culled many of our best lines. Varroa culled hard some of our best lines
> gone forever.
Bob, this fact has not been stressed enough. I lost my best lines of bees,
and have since only ocassionally seen any to match.
>
> >Beekeepers want these queens but do not want to pay extra for such
queens.
There is little percentage in it for any breeder nowadays. Breeding for
resistant bees must be a labor of love or of challenge.
>In a COMMERCIAL setting when the hive is being moved from one pollination
to
another and placed on up to five flows in a season there is not a bee on
the
planet which can survive varroa without chemicals in my opinion!
I'm sure trying to find this bee too, Bob! That's why I do not sell queens
commercially--I have not yet found a line of bees that I am happy with,
despite bringing in stock from all over. I need bees that build up huge
for
almonds, then can recover from heavy splitting, and still make at least two
honey crops or pollinations afterward, and then winter well. Before varroa,
I had bees that would do so.
I have just set up an isolated yard of pure Russians, of several
queenlines,
to give them a fair shake for several years. I will run them as a group,
and return them all to the same yards for matings.
However, I am still optimistic, and find that overall varroa tolerance of
various lines is improving. This year I again purchased breeders from
various survivor stocks, and will be following their progress.
Randy Oliver
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